Why? Tourism brings money, taking money away from Russia and bring it to Europe who in turn use it to support Ukraine seems like a win for me.
I’m 100% in favor of blocking money flowing the wrong way, for example by preventing banks from making such transactions or increasing taxes to certain things (e.g. here in Spain property taxes are much higher if you live abroad, increasing them further for Russians would prevent money from being drained that way). But if Russians wish to indirectly support Ukraine I see it as a win.
Possibly intelligence and propaganda reasons. Russians have been linked to alt-right propaganda campaigns and the last thing the secret services want is for those efforts to integrate further into their country’s society. A vacation visa also implies that the Russians will go back and the same security agencies would be all kinds of paranoid about what happens in the meantime
Why? Tourism brings money, taking money away from Russia and bring it to Europe who in turn use it to support Ukraine seems like a win for me.
I’m 100% in favor of blocking money flowing the wrong way, for example by preventing banks from making such transactions or increasing taxes to certain things (e.g. here in Spain property taxes are much higher if you live abroad, increasing them further for Russians would prevent money from being drained that way). But if Russians wish to indirectly support Ukraine I see it as a win.
Possibly intelligence and propaganda reasons. Russians have been linked to alt-right propaganda campaigns and the last thing the secret services want is for those efforts to integrate further into their country’s society. A vacation visa also implies that the Russians will go back and the same security agencies would be all kinds of paranoid about what happens in the meantime